Pensions misselling review

mullet_2

Hi

I note from other thread that people are still having pensions reviewed so I hope I'm not too late!

I've been sorting out my OH's pension and trying to help him transfer several small private pension pots into his employer's final salary scheme. I've managed to do this successfully with two but there are two outstanding (the oldest ones), both of which are eligible for review.

At the time he was missold (1991) he was a member of a very reputable employer's scheme. His final statement of benefits from this fund gave a death in service grant of 3.71 times his salary, plus a widow's/child's benefit of half the final pensionable salary had he lived to normal retirement age, plus an additional allowance if I were under the age of 60 when he died.

First question: I can get my head around the pension performance calculations (just!) but how are such life assurance benefits calculated, given that taking out private insurance for this would cost a fortune?

The offer the company came back with as redress for leaving this scheme was £737. The offer was to open up a new fund wth this money and the letter states that if they heard nothing to the contrary they would go ahead with this. OH rejected this immediately (1999) and heard nothing more - finally his letters (2002) were coming back return to sender as the PO box had been cancelled. I have now taken up the cudgels on his behalf and have managed to track the company down. They have been unable to find any record of my husband's account so I'm about to photocopy all the docs I have and send them off. I guess a new review will be triggered.

Second question: Is £737 reasonable recompense for leaving an employer's final salary scheme with death in service benefits? Does the fact that he was unable to continue making contributions to a private pension after a year (but would probably have continued making payments to the original scheme via salary deductions on the inertia principle) alter the sum payable?

Thanks for any advice.

EdInvestor

mullet wrote: »

The offer the company came back with as redress for leaving this scheme was £737. The offer was to open up a new fund wth this money and the letter states that if they heard nothing to the contrary they would go ahead with this. OH rejected this immediately (1999) and heard nothing more

Having rejected the offer he needed to take the issue to the Financial Ombudsman Service (might then have been the PIA ombudsman) within 6 months.If he didn't do this, his complaint lapsed.

mullet_2

Ah, so if they ever find out what policy they set up with this money it will be too late to change it? That would be fine, I just want to get it all into one pot. But the chap on the phone sounded quite concerned that he couldn't find anything relating to my OH in his database, and he searched by name, dob, policy number, NI number and nothing came up. It seems as if the money that was transferred into this company, plus this new policy they set up, has just disappeared. I don't want to name them as I want to give them a chance to put it right but surely there can't be a time limit on an error like this?

EdInvestor

Sorry, just to clarify

mullet wrote: »

At the time he was missold (1991) he was a member of a very reputable employer's scheme. .

What happened to this pension?Was it transferred to an insurance company? Who did the misselling of the transfer? An IFA or a salesman form the insurance company?

The offer the company came back with as redress for leaving this scheme was £737.

This means they accepted your OH's complaint that he had been missold.Or, possibly, he didn't actually make a complaint but the offer arose as part of the Pensions Misselling Review. Is that what happened?

The offer was to open up a new fund wth this money and the letter states that if they heard nothing to the contrary they would go ahead with this. OH rejected this immediately (1999) and heard nothing more

Did he never receive any annual statements about the pension?

finally his letters (2002) were coming back return to sender as the PO box had been cancelled. I have now taken up the cudgels on his behalf and have managed to track the company down.

Better tell us who they are - so far they don't seem to have done anything especially bad...

They have been unable to find any record of my husband's account

Wouldn't be the first time.

I guess a new review will be triggered.

It might not: if it was under the Govt review, then your OH's rejection of the offer might have lapsed the matter and the Review has now officially finished. But you could ask the FOS to check it out.

Is £737 reasonable recompense for leaving an employer's final salary scheme with death in service benefits?

Depends on how much the pot was worth.

Does the fact that he was unable to continue making contributions to a private pension after a year (but would probably have continued making payments to the original scheme via salary deductions on the inertia principle) alter the sum payable?

No.

BTW, Was this a "Section 32 buyout" pension? If so, mentioning that might help the company find it.

mullet_2

Thank you for your interest, Ed.

AFAIK, the company pension pot was transferred into the private pension. It was someone who had been recommended to my OH by a colleague - he came round to the house so assume it was a salesman. Cannon Lincoln it was known as at that time.

The review was instigated by the company. There are no statements, either before or after this time. The review pack was forwarded to him by his employer or the tax office, as had had moved. We have since moved again but they were notified of this and have written to us here: one of my old letters specifically asks for a statement in order to assist in making the decision whether to accept the offer or not but no reply was received and shortly after that the letters came back undelivered.

I am not sure the refusal was received by the company - the letter stating that the money would be invested in a with-profits fund is dated after the rejection letter.

mullet